Instead of using a simple lifetime average, Udemy calculates a course's star rating by considering a number of different factors such as the number of ratings, the age of ratings, and the likelihood of fraudulent ratings.

Advanced: Make and Sell Custom Shirts Using Merch by Amazon

Merch by Amazon allows anyone with a computer to offer their designs for sale on Amazon as print on demand shirts.

4.3
(618 ratings)

Instead of using a simple lifetime average, Udemy calculates a course's star rating by considering a number of different factors such as the number of ratings, the age of ratings, and the likelihood of fraudulent ratings.

Students should be comfortable entering banking and tax information into their Amazon account

Basic photo editing skills (Photoshop or Illustrator) are beneficial but not mandatory

Description

Merch by Amazon is Amazon's newest platform for content creators. It allows anyone to create and sell shirts right on Amazon's website with no upfront costs or minimum print runs. Anyone can now easily create custom branded shirts that their fans will love to wear. This course will help you get started and learn how to use the platform both optimally and creatively. This course includes video demos of shirt designs in Adobe Photoshop as well as actual creation of an Amazon product page for a new shirt design. If you want to learn how to take advantage of this incredible new platform to not only create awesome shirts but to also make money along the way, then this course is for you.

Who is the target audience?

This course is for anyone who wants to learn more about the Merch by Amazon platform

This course does not go into the details of in-app or in-game promotion of Merch by Amazon products

Merch by Amazon is so new that it is developing and changing even as I make the videos for this course! They now have a max price of $49.99 on shirts and are limiting designs to a maximum of five color options. When I made several of the videos in this course, there was no color choice max. So please keep this in mind as you go through the course and open your own Merch by Amazon account that some things may look different over time. I expect many of the changes to be for the better such as more options and more control over the product details. Time will tell.

Just three weeks into the launch of Merch by Amazon and there are already two big changes!

First, they are limiting the number of shirt designs that a creator can upload. They now have a tiered system where you will be limited on how many listings you can upload related to how many shirts you are actually selling. I was worried that this may happen because in all of my experience with Amazon, I know that they want a great customer experience on the Amazon website and it wouldn't take long for some creators to start uploading 'I Love Frogs' and 'I Love Sushi' and 'I Love Leaves' and then 'Bill Loves Frogs' and 'Bill Loves Sushi' and 'Bill Love Leaves' and then 'Sally Loves Frogs' and well I think you get what I'm trying to say.

BONUS TIP: Even if your shirts aren't selling (yet), you can still up your design limit with a PAY TO PLAY model of just buying your own shirts. Think about it; if your ideas and designs are wrth putting on Amazon, then buying a single copy of one of your shirts should be worth it.

Second, the program has seen such a great response that they are extending their shipping lead times to customers from 2-3 days + Prime shipping to 5-7 days + Prime shipping. This is not something that content creators can control but pass it along to any customers or traffic that you may be sending to your Amazon listings.

10/24/15 Merch by Amazon Changes

07:29

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QuickStart Guide - Creating a Shirt with Merch By Amazon

1 Lecture
05:34

In this video, we upload the artwork and create a brand new shirt listing on Amazon using Merch by Amazon to show just how easy it is to create product pages. The finer details of this process are broken down in later videos.

In this video, we walk through the basic account settings that need to be configured prior to uploading shirt designs. These settings include your business info, your banking info (to receive royalty payments), and your tax information.

Setting Up Your Account

01:55

In this video, we take a detailed look at the Merch by Amazon dashboard. The features here include Creating, Promoting, Managing, and Analyzing your items.

Merch By Amazon - Dashboard

03:45

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Merch By Amazon - Resources

5 Lectures
08:05

Merch by Amazon provides some amazing resources for their users. In this video, we walk through each section and outline the information in each.

Merch By Amazon - Resources

08:05

These are the Best Practices directly from Amazon. Direct link also provided to stay up to date on any possible changes.

Merch By Amazon - Best Practices

5 pages

These are the Royalty Calculations directly from Amazon. Direct link also provided to stay up to date on any possible changes.

Merch By Amazon - Royalty Calculations

3 pages

These are the Content Policies directly from Amazon. Direct link also provided to stay up to date on any possible changes.

Merch By Amazon - Content Policy

1 page

These are the Promotions Policies directly from Amazon. Direct link also provided to stay up to date on any possible changes.

Merch By Amazon - Promotions Policy

1 page

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Merch By Amazon - FAQs

1 Lecture
00:00

These are the FAQs directly from Amazon. Direct link also provided to stay up to date on any possible changes.

Merch By Amazon - FAQs

15 pages

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Using the Merch By Amazon Image Template

2 Lectures
10:17

In this video, we take a detailed look at the Photoshop PSD file and how you can use it to create great Merch by Amazon shirt designs. Direct downloads of Amazon templates included.

Amazon Template VIDEO

08:03

This is a BLANK PNG file, 4500 pixels wide by 5400 pixels high. 300 DPI with a transparent background. Use this to make new shirt designs.

Shirt dimensions

02:14

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Creating Shirts on Merch by Amazon

3 Lectures
25:53

In this video, we do a more detailed walkthrough of the Merch by Amazon upload, design, and product page creation process. We talk about each setting and give examples of when you should use different options.

Uploading a Shirt Design - Detailed Process

16:00

I ordered several shirts with the full 4500 x 5400, 300 dpi images used and they are a bit big. This is a 15" x 18" images on a shirt. Amazon's own Best Practices state:

Artwork sizing and placement

While you can certainly use the entire 15" x 18" in space, often customers find a print that is 18 inches to be overwhelming. By and large we find that keeping your maximum dimension to 12 inches or less results in higher conversion rates.

I will be making many of my shirts with 12" x 12" images moving forward, and this video will show you a few tricks to making sure that they stay centered on the 15" x 18" required template size.

Shirt Design Best Practices - 12" x 12" Image Size

05:00

In this video, see exactly why anyone who uses Merch by Amazon has an unfair advantage when listing on Amazon. We talk about the benefits of being eligible for Amazon Prime and how Merch by Amazon shirts can quickly be the #1 result for searches on Amazon.

Amazon PRIME and a Powerful Example - GDFR

04:53

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Advanced: Creating a Branded Website

5 Lectures
22:43

In this video, we introduce the tools of domain forwarding and domain masking and give examples of when each method would work.

Domain Forwarding vs. Domain Masking

02:53

In this video, we do a real example showing the GoDaddy settings needed to forward a domain to an Amazon search result page for multiple Merch by Amazon products.

Domain Name Forwarding

05:22

In this video, we set up an Amazon Associates account and an Amazon aStore that allows us to pick and choose specific Amazon items (ASINs) to categorize and organize.

AStore, Amazon Associates

05:19

In this video, we change the GoDaddy domain setting to enable both domain forwarding and domain masking in order to give our new Amazon aStore a more convenient domain name.

Domain Masking

03:37

This is a short video showing you how to add a website to a shirt design. Also think about doing this only if you have a reason to. Don't do it 'just because'.

Adding a Website to your Shirt Designs

05:32

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Sharing a Specific Amazon Link

1 Lecture
01:30

In this video, we'll see exactly how to get a direct Amazon link for any Merch by Amazon product specific to the cut, size, and color. Use this when sending direct links to people for specific sizes and colors of shirts.

Sharing a Specific Link for a Shirt Design, Size, and Color

01:30

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Additional Resources to Create Designs

3 Lectures
12:39

Need help with photo editing or looking for a source of quality images for your Merch by Amazon products? There is no shortage of sites online that can help with both. In this video, we take a closer look at DollarPhotoClub and Fiverr.

Fiverr and DollarPhotoClub

08:02

Stock Photos - Adobe Stock

00:20

In this video, I show you a $39 purchase I made to get more fonts and designs.

Chris is the co-founder ScanPower, the premier suite of apps and programs for professional Amazon sellers, in 2010 with his business partner, Paul Retherford. He has been selling online since the '90s, has sold millions of dollars worth of products online, spoken at dozens of events across the country, mentored hundreds of online sellers, and published several books.In addition to helping hundreds of online sellers run profitable businesses, Chris enjoys leveraging new technologies such as on-demand printing, 3D printing, and drones. Look, if you sell products online, it doesn't matter what they are, where you got them or where you want to sell them. Just put the pieces together and make a profit. And if you have a passion for something, Chris can give you a dozen ideas on how to make that your fulltime job making good money.